#14 Graduations

Country people attend two graduations each year. The first, “8th grade promotion,” takes place in the grade school multipurpose room. Country people who are not parents, grandparents, siblings, aunts or uncles of an 8th grader or a 7th grade band member are excused from attending. However, all acquaintances of the graduates are expected to attend the “graduation parties” that follow. At an eighth grade graduation party country people tell the eighth grader how proud they are of their accomplishment and assure them that they believe they can handle the transition to the high school across the street from their grade school.

Every country person must attend a second “high school school graduation” regardless of their affiliation with a graduate. While no formal dress code is enforced men are expected to wear a button down shirt and women should avoid slacks if at all possible. High school graduations are held after church in the “high school gym.” The weather can vary but be advised that the temperature in the high school gym will be well above ninety degrees. The graduation ceremony consists of a prayer by superintendent of schools, a valedictory speech by every student who took advanced English class, and a recitation of the names of nearly fifty graduates. Guests at high school graduation parties are required to bring a cash gift; cash gifts for graduates who are second cousins must be ten dollars more than cash gifts for unrelated grads. Country people serve “7-up and sherbert punch” and “sheet cake” at every graduation party. It is proper etiquette to consume the cake and punch at each party and to tell the mother of each graduate “this is the best punch I’ve had all day!”